Romans 16:1 (ESV)
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae,
God changes things. In chapter 16 we have a long list of Christians who had served with Paul, or was aware of both Paul and the Roman Christians. In the chapter, over 30 names, or groups of individuals, are mentioned. This IS the body of Christ. Each of these individuals were saved out of a world of pagan gods and pagan ways. Yet, God redeemed them and uses them in a mighty way. Note what the great R.C. Sproul said about, Phoebe, mentioned in the opening verse of the chapter. We need to realize that God changes things. God takes whatever we had broken and dedicated to one thing and purifies it, sanctifies it and use it for the Himself:
“Phoebe’s name is taken from a pagan goddess. In the early church, Christians who had been named for pagan deities retained those names after conversion because the names’ origins no longer had any religious or theological signifi-cance. We need to bear that in mind, because disputes over any sort of Chris-tian link to anything with pagan roots occasionally arise in the church today. Easter sounds close to the pagan deity Ishtar, and the celebration of Christmas on December 25 corresponds to the time in ancient Rome when celebration was held for the pagan god Mithras. Christians decided at one point to use the occasion to celebrate the birth of Christ. That was a noble endeavor, but some still are scandalized by the historic relationship to the Mithras cult.
It is understandable that many things in our culture have roots in pagan-ism, yet those roots have long since been overlooked, and we do not need to have scruples about them. The days of the week were named for pagan gods. Monday was named for the moon. Wednesday came about in honor of the Scandinavian Norse god Woden. Thursday comes from the celebration of the pagan deity Thor. Saturday goes back to the celebration of the Roman god Saturn. We use those designations, but we do not attribute to the names of the days of the week any particular religious homage”
Romans 16:1 (ESV)
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae,
God changes things. In chapter 16 we have a long list of Christians who had served with Paul, or was aware of both Paul and the Roman Christians. In the chapter, over 30 names, or groups of individuals, are mentioned. This IS the body of Christ. Each of these individuals were saved out of a world of pagan gods and pagan ways. Yet, God redeemed them and uses them in a mighty way. Note what the great R.C. Sproul said about, Phoebe, mentioned in the opening verse of the chapter. We need to realize that God changes things. God takes whatever we had broken and dedicated to one thing and purifies it, sanctifies it and use it for the Himself:
“Phoebe’s name is taken from a pagan goddess. In the early church, Christians who had been named for pagan deities retained those names after conversion because the names’ origins no longer had any religious or theological signifi-cance. We need to bear that in mind, because disputes over any sort of Chris-tian link to anything with pagan roots occasionally arise in the church today. Easter sounds close to the pagan deity Ishtar, and the celebration of Christmas on December 25 corresponds to the time in ancient Rome when celebration was held for the pagan god Mithras. Christians decided at one point to use the occasion to celebrate the birth of Christ. That was a noble endeavor, but some still are scandalized by the historic relationship to the Mithras cult.
It is understandable that many things in our culture have roots in pagan-ism, yet those roots have long since been overlooked, and we do not need to have scruples about them. The days of the week were named for pagan gods. Monday was named for the moon. Wednesday came about in honor of the Scandinavian Norse god Woden. Thursday comes from the celebration of the pagan deity Thor. Saturday goes back to the celebration of the Roman god Saturn. We use those designations, but we do not attribute to the names of the days of the week any particular religious homage”
Excerpt From
Romans
R. C. Sproul
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=366318344
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